DIY BAC

[thecook]

So I guess this is a way for y'all to tell me how badly I'm risking my health... or maybe it helps someone who's in a similar position?
I'm from Europe and it's not really possible to source bacteriostatic water even semi-legal in my country (trust me I tried to get it, no dice if you don't have a company + lab address), so I tried to find another way to get something similar. I wasn't going to buy it from some random grey market sellers which probably just use distilled water. So I decided to make my own BAC because the components themselves are not regulated and relatively easy to get.

Ingredients:

• Sterile water
  • NOT DISTILLED WATER. You must buy water which is labeled sterile / endotoxin free.
  • You can find it under names like "for flushing purposes" or "oxygen therapy", it's likely unregulated in your country (no prescription necessary)
  • If you get lucky you can find a seller which has bottles with a septum, makes it safer to transfer
  • I was able to easily buy it from a pharmacy online
• Benzyl alcohol
  • Had to get this one from ebay
  • Ideally you can buy it directly from a supplier, depends on if you find one that doesn't require having a company

Tools:

• Sterile 10ml vials
  • Available on different resale platforms
  • Best to buy a pack that's still in the original manufacturer packaging
• 10ml syringes
• 1ml syringes
• 0.22 micron syringe filters
• pH test strips (optional)
  • I just wanted to make sure the sterile water I got actually had an ideal pH
  • I'm assuming this holds for all similar products

Notes:

• Before accessing anything with a septum, wipe it with an disinfectant wipe and let dry (for the time stated on the packaging)
  • You should be doing this when injecting too, so you hopefully already know this. Just making sure.

Prepare the benzyl alcohol:

• Draw 10ml of benzyl alcohol from its container
• Attach a syringe filter
• Deposit the contents into a fresh sterile vial

This is just to prevent any endotoxins from the benzyl alcohol, I'm pretty sure nothing actually survives in there.

Make the BAC:

• Draw 0.09ml of benzyl alcohol from your previously made vial
• Deposit the contents into a fresh sterile vial
• With a new syringe, draw 9.9ml of sterile water
• Inject it into the same vial with the benzyl alcohol

After doing this, make sure to discard your sterile water, as you've likely contaminated it and due to it lacking preservatives (the whole reason we're making BAC) it's not safe to use more than once.

I've been using the resulting BAC for a month with zero stinging or other reactions. The 2 test BAC vials as well as the weekly-accessed reconstituted vial have been perfectly clear so far.

Because the BAC vials have been accessed through the septum in a non-sterile environment (unless you're using a flow hood, congrats!) they have limited shelf life and should not be used for extended periods of time. Treat them like BAC you've opened already, and proceed according to your risk tolerance.

 

[GLP1Pharmacist]

Buy some from China would be safer imho but thanks for sharing

 

[ocuzuc]

So I guess this is a way for y'all to tell me how badly I'm risking my health... or maybe it helps someone who's in a similar position?
I'm from Europe and it's not really possible to source bacteriostatic water even semi-legal in my country (trust me I tried to get it, no dice if you don't have a company + lab address), so I tried to find another way to get something similar. I wasn't going to buy it from some random grey market sellers which probably just use distilled water. So I decided to make my own BAC because the components themselves are not regulated and relatively easy to get.

Ingredients:

• Sterile water
  • NOT DISTILLED WATER. You must buy water which is labeled sterile / endotoxin free.
  • You can find it under names like "for flushing purposes" or "oxygen therapy", it's likely unregulated in your country (no prescription necessary)
  • If you get lucky you can find a seller which has bottles with a septum, makes it safer to transfer
  • I was able to easily buy it from a pharmacy online
• Benzyl alcohol
  • Had to get this one from ebay
  • Ideally you can buy it directly from a supplier, depends on if you find one that doesn't require having a company

Tools:

• Sterile 10ml vials
  • Available on different resale platforms
  • Best to buy a pack that's still in the original manufacturer packaging
• 10ml syringes
• 1ml syringes
• 0.22 micron syringe filters
• pH test strips (optional)
  • I just wanted to make sure the sterile water I got actually had an ideal pH
  • I'm assuming this holds for all similar products

Notes:

• Before accessing anything with a septum, wipe it with an disinfectant wipe and let dry (for the time stated on the packaging)
  • You should be doing this when injecting too, so you hopefully already know this. Just making sure.

Prepare the benzyl alcohol:

• Draw 10ml of benzyl alcohol from its container
• Attach a syringe filter
• Deposit the contents into a fresh sterile vial

This is just to prevent any endotoxins from the benzyl alcohol, I'm pretty sure nothing actually survives in there.

Make the BAC:

• Draw 0.09ml of benzyl alcohol from your previously made vial
• Deposit the contents into a fresh sterile vial
• With a new syringe, draw 9.9ml of sterile water
• Inject it into the same vial with the benzyl alcohol

After doing this, make sure to discard your sterile water, as you've likely contaminated it and due to it lacking preservatives (the whole reason we're making BAC) it's not safe to use more than once.

I've been using the resulting BAC for a month with zero stinging or other reactions. The 2 test BAC vials as well as the weekly-accessed reconstituted vial have been perfectly clear so far.

Because the BAC vials have been accessed through the septum in a non-sterile environment (unless you're using a flow hood, congrats!) they have limited shelf life and should not be used for extended periods of time. Treat them like BAC you've opened already, and proceed according to your risk tolerance.

You can get USP/NF benzyl alcohol from medical-and-lab-supplies .com in a 50ml vial with a self healing stopper for less than $6, it expires on dec 2026. that’s enough to make 5,500ml of 0.9% BAC water. they also have sterile evacuated 10ml glass vials so you don’t need to vent when filling them, just note they expire in march 2026. They don’t tell you any expiration dates before hand. You’ll only know when it arrives.

Notes on benzyl alcohol:

• it oxidizes to benzaldehyde when exposed to air. so I do not inject air into the 50ml vial of i can extract enough. (the lab i worked in college kept benzyl under pure nitrogen during storage)
• it dissolves and releases chemicals from polystyrene syringes, so i use a glass syringe to deal with the pure benzyl. and use one of those small desk top autoclaves to sterilize it.
• it’s neutral, pH is 7
• the volume of 1mg is 1 unit on an insulin syringe.
• the butyl rubber vial stopper IS resistant to benzyl, so don’t worry about that.

However I use it to make 1.8% BAC water. Pharmaceutical BAC is 0.5% to 2% benzyl alcohol. So I add 27 units into a new 0.9% pfizer bottle. Why? I noticed so many commercial multi-use vials use 2% benzyl.
I asked Hallandale Pharmacy as 1) They had a BUD date of 1 year after manufacturing. 2) I was their customer. I figured they boosted it to get the year long date, but no way to tell. They listed it as a preservative, but refused to say how much, said it was a trade secret. They also said the pH was a trade secure too, but that’s easy to check. The only compounder that explicitly listed it with an amount was Olympia Pharmaceuticls at 2%. Maybe because they are a 503B? But they don’t have that long of an BUD, like 4 to 5 months. And my vitamin B shots from Mylan (FDA approved not compounded) lists their benzyl at 2% as well. Everything that has 2% benzyl is in a glass, not plastic vial.

Pfizer’s sells 0.9% benzyl in plastic vials, but they also sell 1.1% benzyl BAC, but that only comes in a glass vial. So i am unsure if the plastic vial starts having a problem at 1% or more, so I always transfer it to sterile glass vials just in case. This is the only transfer I do that I do not filter as it came out of a first puncture sterile vial into another one.

If you try looking at what Lilly does, all their US tirz are single dose auto-injections or vials, so have no preservatives at all. But if you look at their European tirz, they have an injector pen that has 4 shots. They preserve it with 0.9% benzyl AND also an added 0.18% of phenol as well. They also add phosphate buffers and sodium chloride and glycerine. All Lilly tirz has a pH between 6.5 to 7.5. Note that’s pfizer’s BAC sterile water has a pH of 5.7 and their normal saline (0.9% sodium chloride) BAC has a pH is 5.0. So I use a bit of bicarb for injection to bring it closer to 7. Now those are all single use as well, so no benzyl, and you’re diluting down the benzyl, not by much, but still are. Also do NOT autoclave bicarb, as that will cause it off vent CO2, and it becomes sodium carbonate (no longer bicarb and changes its pH too)

For some other peptides like unbuffered NAD+ or GLOW, many make an 1% lidocaine by doing a 50-50 mix of 2% lidocaine so it doesn’t burn. Now lidocaine is always preserved with methylparaben not benzyl. So now you have half the amount of each, which is probably no longer bacteriostatic. By boosting mine to 1.8% benzyl i am back at a comfortable 0.9% which is. Also note most people that are allergic to lidocaine are actually allergic to the methylparaben, it’s PABA. Those that are, benzyl alcohol is used also a local anesthetic. And sometimes combined so the lidocaine doesn’t burn as much upon initial injection. Note that lidocaine/methylparaben vial CAN be autoclaved for sterility, if in a glass vial, they almost alway are.

Oh and someone had posted the efficacy of benzyl at room temperature vs being in the refrigerator. It is most effective at room temp. and if you look at that chart again you’ll noticed that they only tested with a 1.5% benzyl solution, NOT a 0.9.

Good Luck!

 

[thecook]

Buy some from China would be safer imho but thanks for sharing

I've heard stories of people having stinging and skin reactions from non-hospira BAC they've purchased. Of course that's anecdotal but I don't have much to go off. Unlike the actual peptides I also haven't seen any COA or independent testing of chinese vendor BAC water.

 

[GLP1Pharmacist]

I've heard stories of people having stinging and skin reactions from non-hospira BAC they've purchased. Of course that's anecdotal but I don't have much to go off. Unlike the actual peptides I also haven't seen any COA or independent testing of chinese vendor BAC water.

IMHO still better than bath tub or kitchen BAC. Tons bought and tons given away for free with kits and virtually zero real complaints.